Jenny Cameron​

Besides those who had come to Glenfinnan on military duty, quite a number of ladies and gentlemen had been attracted to the spot by curiosity and a desire to see the Prince. Among them was a lady who for some years after the rising acquired an unenviable notoriety by reason of her very slight association with the Prince. This was Miss Jenny Cameron, a daughter of Cameron of Glendessary, of whom it was asserted by Grub Street scandal-mongers, that having attended the ceremony in Glenfinnan, she followed Charles through the campaign as his mistress, until the battle of Falkirk, when she was taken prisoner and sent to Edinburgh. As there undoubtedly was a person of this name taken either at Falkirk or Stirling, it was at one assumed even by the Duke of Cumberland himself, that the prisoner was, to use his own words, "the famous Miss Jenny Cameron." The mystery which surrounded this lady has long baffled authors, but it is now cleared up. The probable solution is as follows:-

Jenny Cameron

As there undoubtedly was a person of this name taken either at Falkirk or Stirling, it was at one assumed even by the Duke of Cumberland himself, that the prisoner was, to use his own words, "the famous Miss Jenny Cameron." The mystery which surrounded this lady has long baffled authors, but it is now cleared up. The probable solution is as follows:-Miss Jenny Cameron of Glendessary, or, to be more accurate, Mrs. O'Neil, for she had married an Irish gentleman of that name but had left him and returned to her Highland home and used her maiden name. She kept house for her brother, Archibald of Dungallon. In 1745 she is described as a "genteel, well-looking, hansome woman, with a pair of pretty eyes and hair as black as jet," of between forty and fifty years of age, "of a very sprightly genius and very agreeable in conversation." When her brother took the fiels with the Prince, Jenny accompanied him to Glenfinnan and gave the Prince a gift of cattle. There has been no indication that she was ever introduced to the Prince. After the raising of the standard she returned home and took care of the estate of her brother. She died in Mount Cameron (Lanarkshire) on 27th June, 1772 and is described in the obituary column of the Scots Magazine of that month as Mrs Jean Cameron, sister to Captain Allan Cameron of Glendessary. Moreover in the article "Morven", in Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland (1794), it is mentioned that "the session has lately got £40, being the principal and interest of £20 bequeathed in the year 1772 to the poor of Morven by Mrs Jean Cameron of Mount Cameron."History of the Rebellion of 1745-6 by Robert Chambers, Seventh Edition printed in 1869, footnotes on pages 251 & 252

Poster of Jenny Cameron

At the end of a pamphlet, called "The life of Dr. Archibald Cameron, brother to Donald Cameron of Lochiel, etc. London Gazette, 1753, page 32 there is given in the Appendix a notice and portrait of "Miss Jenny Cameron in military habit". She is there said to be the daughter of Hugh Cameron of Gladessary, and to have joined the Prince when he set up his standard with 200 well-armed followers, whom she personally led in action at Prestonpans, Falkirk and Culloden.Lyon in Mourning, 1896, Vol. i, footnote at foot of page 293

The probable cause of the bad publicity was as a result of an amazing coincidence.When the Prince was besieging Stirling Castle a Miss or Mrs. Jenny Cameron, who carried on a milliner's business in Edinburgh, hearing that one of her relatives in the Highland army was wounded in the camp, set out for Stirling to visit him. When the Duke of Cumberland took command of his army in Edinburgh the Highland army retreated northwards. Jenny Cameron was left behind and was captured by the Duke's troops. She was arrested and gave her name to an intelligence officer. Cumberland quickly heard of of the capture and writing from Stirling on February 2nd 1746 to the Duke of Newcastle says, "We have taken about twenty of their sick here, and the famous Miss Jenny Cameron, whom I propose to send to Edinburgh for the Lord Justice Clerk to examine, as I fancy she may be a useful evidence against them, if a little threatened." She was unjustly incarcerated in Edinburgh Castle until November 15th, 1746 when she was released on bail. On her return to her long neglected shop business poured in upon her, "all the City crowding to buy Ribbands, Gloves, Fans, etc," on the mistaken notion that she had been Prince Charlies' mistress.The Life and Adventures of Prince Charles Edward Stuart by W. Drummond Norie, printed 1900, Vol. i, pages 170-173